Family killed 'over marriage row'

Pervaze Yousaf who was killed along with husband Mohammad and daughter Tania in Pakistan

A community is in mourning after a British husband, wife and daughter were gunned down in Pakistan when an arranged marriage ended in murder.

Father-of-six Mohammad Yousaf, 51, his wife Pervaze Yousaf, 49, and their 22-year-old daughter Tania, had left the UK to attend the wedding of a son in Pakistan surrounded by loving family and friends.

But they were shot dead just days after the happy ceremony while paying respects at a family graveyard.

Members of the devastated family, from Nelson, Lancashire, were being consoled by relatives. Tania's two young boys, Harris, aged nine months, and three-year-old Arien, were being looked after by relatives in Pakistan.

The Yousafs were in the country for the wedding of son Asad, 24, when they were attacked on Thursday in a village in the district of Gujrat, north-east Pakistan.

Two of the alleged gunmen, thought to be nephews of the murdered couple, were arrested. Another was reportedly killed in the gunfire, which also left another woman dead, and police were hunting a fourth suspect.

A family member in Nelson, who said he was among 200 guests at the wedding, said: "Everybody was enjoying themselves at the wedding and the family were visiting the graves of relatives in the village when they were shot. Asad got back the day before it happened. He is obviously in shock, crying, disgusted."

The relative, who did not want to be named, said the feud was sparked by the breakdown of the arranged marriage of another son of Mr Yousaf, Kamar, who wed his cousin.

The couple had two children, both girls, before they split after around 10 years, with the wife moving from the family home to Manchester, possibly to a hostel.

Mr Yousaf, a taxi-driver and builder, Mrs Yousaf, a housewife, and many of their extended family, like many in Nelson, come from the Pakistan town of Jaurah.